There was much discussion and speculation regarding the recent synod on the family, including a media-driven suggestion that the Catholic Church was going to change long-standing rules pertaining to sexual morality.
George Weigel has a good recent piece which clarifies matters.
The Church’s diminishing appeal to men is a crisis which few have been willing to speak about bluntly. Cardinal Burke (pictured above) is an exception, as this piece shows.
One snippet:
“Sadly, the Church has not effectively reacted to these destructive cultural forces; instead the Church has become too influenced by radical feminism and has largely ignored the serious needs of men.”
The truth will set you free.
Pope Francis, in one of his controversy-provoking interviews, mentioned that one of his favorite spiritual writers is Fr. Louis Lallemant. I found on the Internet, and read, The Spiritual Doctrine of Father Louis Lallement, which is indeed an excellent book. Recommended.
UPDATE:
I meant to include this list of ten really short prayers to say during the day.
A very good list, with good commentary.
Like Winston Churchill, I could not be called a “pillar” of the Church. More of a flying buttress. Support from outside.
I have given several friends copies of a book that I consider significant. Goodbye Good Men.
Much of Cardinal Burke’s argument is applicable to other institutions in our society as much as to the RC Church.
Jonathan, agreed.
That said, the Church should take the lead on these questions and it has for far too long failed to do so.
Interesting interview. Not Catholic, but heard what he has to say regarding men. Apparently he was moved out of the Vatican, to another post. One article I read on Burke’s demotion and the ‘controversy” had a comments section, in which someone had related his experience in recent years at a seminary. I had a neighbor nearly forty years ago, who had attended that very same institution. He moved into the vacant apartment across the hall from us, and was enjoying the life free of the constraints of the priesthood, and was pretty much done with Catholicism as a whole. As we sat around drinking beers one afternoon he related the stuff he had seen during his year plus “at school”. His parents were recent immigrants, and deeply upset that he had quit the seminary. He had told his father what transpired, and they decided his mother should not hear about it. I would guess that Burke has been witness to all this and more over his years.